CULTIVATING SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABLY SPEAKING, WITH DR. DAN
Update on the Climate-Smart Commodities Grant from the USDA Previously in this column, I discussed the announcement of a $45 million grant to Blue Diamond Growers from the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities fund. We will be using these funds to support growers in implementing specific “climate-smart” practices on Blue Diamond
takes time, and as I am writing this, we are in the process of submitting our third round of revisions. We will continue to keep our members informed as we work to move towards having a signed contract with the USDA. Believe it or not, we are told that we are one of the first organizations to get this far. As I previously reported in this column, growers and partner organizations cannot be reimbursed for any work related to the grant until the contract is completed and signed . Once we have a contract, we will define the processes and policies for our staff and our partners to use in applying for the planting material and/or cost share reimbursement dollars. We recently hired a new staff person who will begin this planning even before the contract is finalized. However, other planning activities with our partners are directly funded by the grant and thus cannot be addressed before the contract is in place. Here are some of the details the team will be working on between now and harvest: • Application materials — All members who apply for funds through this grant must also participate in the Orchard Stewardship Incentive Program (OSIP), so we will be integrating the materials for both programs. As the OSIP program also provides
member orchards. Our primary partners in the grant include Project Apis m . and Pollinator Partnership, two organizations that have frequently contributed to Almond Facts in the past. This grant will provide cost share to growers for the implementation of one or more of the following practices:
• Annual cover cropping
• C onservation plantings (i.e. permanent cover outside the orchard/bee pastures) • H edgerow plantings (pollinator-friendly trees and shrubs)
• Whole orchard recycling
In addition to aiding farmers in adopting these practices, funds will be devoted to connecting these climate-smart practices to markets to enhance sales for the cooperative. As always, at Blue Diamond , our goal is to maximize returns to our growers, while we deliver the benefits of almonds to the world. For this issue, I want to give a brief update on where we are with the grant process and the anticipated next steps. What happens next? Even though the award was announced in September, all grant awardees must have a signed contract with the USDA before the funds are made available. There are many requirements related to how federal funds must be spent which must be addressed in writing. To address these requirements, we have been actively collaborating with the USDA through a series of back-and-forth revisions. This all
a higher return for your crop delivery, it is an additional source of funding to members for going through this effort.
• Cost share and Incentives — Our latest draft proposal sent to USDA certainly estimates the cost share dollars for each practice, but we cannot finalize and publicly share these until the contract is signed and all the above items are addressed. Nonetheless, the cost share dollars for three of the practices are anticipated to lower the cost of
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ALMOND FACTS
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